Customer Reviews

Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

"Goddess Unmasked" is a readable and informative discussion of neopagan religious ideas, particularly those around the practice of "goddess worship." Goddess worship, nature worship, and the practice of "Wicca" (which has been in the news lately due to a controversy about Wiccans in the Army) are closely related concepts, as Philip Davis shows.

The book has an interesting similarity to Dennis Covington's "Salvation on Sand Mountain," which deals with Appalachian snake handlers, in that it's a study of an unconventional, contemporary religious movement which is basically a fringe phenomenon but which also turns out to involve a lot more than a bunch of dreary fanatics with weird beliefs.

What Davis does is this book is to trace present-day goddess-worship to its immediate roots in the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries through the European esoteric/occult tradition down to today. Along the way, he examines seriously some of the key claims of goddess advocates about pacifist, egalitarian "matriarchies" that supposedly existed in very ancient times, and about the meaning of the witch hunts of the early modern period in Europe. He also looks seriously at some of the religious implications of neopaganism, raising some critical issues but without an obvious agenda of evangelizing supporters out of their beliefs.

Most of the book is actually taken up with a series of sketches of the lives and ideas of a variety of colorful characters - mostly men - that contributed in some way to the esoteric/occult tradition that led to goddess worship, as well as to a lot of other ideas that have become common currency in the "New Age." They include serious scientists like the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, and a conservative German historian named Johann Jakob Bachofen who was carried away with Romantic ideas almost in spite of himself. He discusses well-known occultists like the Theosophist founder Madame Blavatsky and the bizarre con-man Aleister Crowley. And lots of others are tossed in along the way.

One of the most interesting and unusual things about this book is that it is a serious study of a new religious movement by a mainstream Biblical scholar, who employs the same kind of historical-critical perspective on the development of goddess worship that he presumably brings to Biblical studies. There is an academic sub-field dealing with "new religions." But that tends to focus specifically on issues relating to cult groups and also tends to be more sociological, psychological or journalistic in its approach.

An important aspect of this book is that Davis takes goddess worship seriously as a religious movement. In relation to the current controversy over Wiccans in the Army, Davis makes a good case that Wicca is entitled to be considered a religion. His observations on how "immanence" religions (that see divinity in nature) may devalue objectivity in knowledge are particularly provocative. The prophetic or transcendence religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam see divine revelation as coming from without, as special revelation to humanity from a separate God. Is that view of God more likely to promote a more scientific or objective outlook than the immanence religions?

One word of warning. In this case, the old saying "you can't judge a book by its cover" really applies. The book jacket features a graphic of a scowling, green-faced hag that bears a striking resemblance to feminist writer Betty Friedan, who is not mentioned in the book at all. The back cover advertises two books which sound like antifeminist tracts, which makes me wonder if Spence Publishing may play to that particular niche.

The book itself does not make an antifeminist argument and is not polemical in tone. If any such editorial bias was brought to bear, it shows up in the last 13 pages, after the book's conclusions have been nicely summarized. Those pages take up a couple of contemporary Canadian disputes in which arguments that most feminists would regard as extreme played a visible role, but which seem to have no direct connection to goddess worship. Unfortunately, pasting on a cursory treatment of those issues at the end will give easy fodder to anyone who wants to write a hit piece on the book.

But, as interesting as the treatment of the present-day goddess movement was to me, my favorite thing about the book is that it contains so many stories about eccentric geniuses, dreamers and scamsters from the last couple of centuries who have contributed in some way to the modern religious scene.

The author sets out to analyze the history of modern goddess worship and debunk some of its more extravagant historical claims. He succeeds. His analysis is detailed and he supports his assertions with facts. Although he is obviously not a goddess worshipper, I did not detect any overt bias -- i.e. Scriptural quotes or the like. His resume indicates that he is probably Christian, but you can't tell from the text of his book where his own religious loyalties lie.

He doesn't explain much of the practices of modern Wicca, and the last sixty pages do seem a bit hurried (as another reviewer noted). If that's your focus, you need a different book. Still, I think this is a good basic explanation of the historical background of neo-paganism.

"Goddess Unmasked" has two main parts. The first, a description of the standard "goddess history": the claim that the first religion was worship of a single goddess, that peace-loving matriarchies were focibly overthrown by bad old warlike patriachy and all that. He then goes through a rather nice summary of all of the cultures that are supposed to fit the "matriarchal" mold and demonstrates that there really isn't much evidence there to support the assertions of the proponents. While he gives some good pointers for more in-depth reading, it would have been nice if he'd put in a little more detail. Illustrations would have been useful in the parts where artifacts were discussed, but these are minor quibbles. Overall, he's done a good job in picking the most respected authorities of the movement's "mainstream" and addressed their historical claims directly and evenhandedly.

In the second part, Davis traces the origins of the "Goddess movement", finding it's roots in the "esoteric tradition" of the West: Mesmerism, Theosophy, etc. It is, essentially, a history of ideas and good reading for anyone that likes to watch an idea slowly develop. Davis does a fair job of keeping focus and filtering extraneous detail on the movements discussed, but iwas sometimes frustrating when he'd say something like "we'll skip over the colorful story of XYZ because it's off the subject". Oh well. This section could have been organized better, but on a whole it is well-reseached and has a strong factual basis. Great stuff.

The conclusion of the book left something to be desired. One gets the feeling that there was a bunch of topics that Davis wanted to comment on and he just sort of willy-nilly packed them in 30 pages at the end of the book. It would have been best for him to just stay on topic with a brief summary.

I suspect that this book will cause some pretty strong emotional reactions in the people that have a heavy investment in the "goddess myth" as a historical fact. I'd recommend it for anyone else with curiousity on the subject matter, though!

It's difficult to find unbiased research into the history of Wicca. Most writers are either Wiccan themselves, or are vehemently opposed to the religion. This means that, no matter how objective an author may try to be, the bones of agenda will show through.

This is so with "Goddess Unmasked," which, while it contains a great deal of useful information, is also colored by the author's fundamental objection to Neo-Paganism in general and what he terms the "goddess movement" in particular. It's an objection that many thinking Christians (as opposed to those who spout rhetoric) have, and therefore worth some consideration.

The Christian view of deity is transcendentalist; to them, deity exists outside our physical world. Neo-Pagans see deity as immanent, constantly present around us and within us. This idea is troubling to many Christians, and it's something that Davis runs up against again and again.

That said, the book's not some kind of hysterical anti-Pagan tract--I'd be impressed if *any* author could keep that up for several hundred pages. While Davis ultimately comes down firmly on the side of Christianity, he is at least a thoughtful author who's done some research--though as other reviewers have noted, he occasionally picks and chooses to cast certain researchers in a bad light. Pagans should read this book, not because it will attempt to convert them, but because it's important to understand the underlying objections many Christians have to Wicca and other Neo-Pagan faiths.

There is a tendency among many a new wave feminist to disregard any aspiration to equality, "equity feminism," for a we-are-superior fantasy, or "gender feminism." A subset of these claims not only that a woman-run ("matriarchal") society would run better, but that in the distant past there was such a society and it was the height of communal ecstasy: no violence, just people loving one another. This Garden of Eden was, according to this school of "thought," destroyed when the males developed a violent, genocidal, destructive (add your favorite negative adjective) "patriarchy."

Dr. Davis is a Canadian professor of religious studies. He is obviously well versed in the techniques of research, by which he exposes the fantasies of these feminists and their disciples. Not only, he reveals, are these stories no more than fantasies, but they are fairly recent fantasies and the fantasies OF MEN!

Whether Davis wishes it or not, the history he covers, from the Romanticism that sprang up as a reaction to the Enlightenment through all sorts of 19th century nonsense--too much of which still has an active following today--such as Madame Blavatsky's Theosophy and its by-products, and Carl Jung, the blowhard whose work is more a manifesation of 19th century occult movements to one of which Hitler subscribed than it is of actual science, to Gerald Gardner and his "witchcraft" product, is a real expose of most of today's New Age movements. For instance, Wicca, many of whose practitioners claim, with no evidence, that theirs was an ancient popular movement, is among the products of these fairly tales. Only one of the manifestations of these movements is the anti-historical, revisionist, divisive "feminism."

After many pages, the summaries truly do summarize. After revealing that there never was a matriarchal Utopia, Davis covers dimensions of life run by women today. And they're far from ecstatic! (Two who come to mind who Davis did not even cover are those great humanitarians Margaret Thatcher and Nancy Reagan!) In the second-to-last chapter, Davis draws a picture of the various proponents of these theories and fantasies quoting each other, such as Joseph Campbell making Jung's arrogant theories popular in the 1980s and 1990s. In short, they're just referring to each other's theories. It reminds me of studies done of how gossip is spread, and it is essentially just that!

Of the other reviews on this page, it's obvious that many of the reviewers hadn't even read the book. So they can make judgments of Davis, in essence that he's part of the conspiracy against them. I disregard those judgments as I have read it. And the only reason I don't give the book 5 stars is that I can infer Davis' Christian affiliation. While I do not object to that, I question his comment that the Myers-Briggs test is no longer given by an affiliate of the Canadian Episcopal Church because of its neo-pagan roots. I don't care if its roots are Buddhist, Islamic, or out of Hollywood. I object to it because it's overused, abused, and misused to a degree way beyond its usefulness. Additionally, Davis may have covered some of today's matriarchal or matrilineal peoples, say the Garos or Khasis of India. These may have reinforced his argument, that the condition of being female-run doesn't ensure some kind of bliss.

Overall, though, I strongly recommend the book to those interested in the New Age in general, and gender feminism in particular. Once we learn more about this history, we can start to rival the nonsense that claims to be a "movement" during these last years of the 20th century.

This book is a fantastic study of the goddess myth and the modern New Age movement. The author meticulously traces the rise of the idea of the goddess and hw it developed over the years. He names the people who added to and invented the myth and how it evolved into a false religion. It touches upon neopagans and the satanist Aleister Crowley who's infuence is stamped firmly on much of the New Age beliefs and Gerald Gardner's invented witchcraft religion wicca. This book decisively hammers the nails in the coffin concerning all the goddess and New Age religions nonsense. Great work.

Philip Davis is a professor of religious studies at the University of Prince Edward Island in Canada. He writes in the Preface to this 1998 book, "This book in an historical critique of Goddess spirituality: a description of its claims, an examination of those claims measured against the available evidence, an account of its true origins and sources, and an assessment of its place and significance in society... I do not believe that the assertions of the Goddess movement stand up to scrutiny; indeed, it is perplexing that claims so easily disproved are nevertheless in wide and increasing circulation."

Here are some additional quotations from the book:

"The returning Goddess is meant to replace God the Father; this, according to her devotees, is an essential step towards curing the social and environmental ills of our times." (Pg. 39)
"Conspicuous by their absence in the catalogue of Goddess books are specialists in those fields where some of the movement's claims can actually be tested: anthropology and ancient history." (Pg. 51)
"...the Paleolithic evidence is far too sparse and flimsy to support a theory as elaborate as the story of the Goddess. Goddess writers ... often appeal to later cults of the Great Goddess and read them back into the cave art." (Pg. 60)
"If feminist spirituality is uncomfortable with empiricism and rationality, it is even more hostile towards the biblical understanding of revelation." (Pg. 95)
"(M)odern historians agree that the sort of witchcraft defined by the witch-hunters never existed." (Pg. 328)
"Wicca reached America in time to influence second-wave feminism, giving the Goddess access to liberal and radical forces in North America." (Pg. 351)

My custom is to always read the lowest reviews for each book I find on Amazon. In fact, I tend to rely on them more than the positive reviews. If the negative reviews appear unbiased and share common significant criticisms, I will usually avoid the book. However, if the reviews betray a common biased criticism, I am instead persuaded to purchase the book. Such was the case with Goddess Unmasked.

The reviews I have seen regarding this book are almost uniformly from persons who obviously espouse a radical feminist version of "history", which is to say a reinterpreting of history to suit political ideology, rather than fact.

The criticisms I recall offhand include the insinuation that the author is a Christian spreading propaganda (the bigoted assumption being that a Christian is unable to maintain objective scholarship, while those devoted to feminist spirituality can), that the work itself does not meet standards of serious scholarship, and of course a defense that previous feminist works on this topic never intended to prove a matriarchal civilization, but merely "equality" between sexes. All of these are, of course, absolute rubbish.

After having read this book, it is my opinion that the author has done a fantastic job of not only suppressing any bias he might naturally have as a Christian, but in seriously addressing the incredibly distorted picture that feminist "scholars" have been attempting to perpetrate on the public for decades. It is precisely because of the objective work by persons like Mr. Davis that the subjective shams of those like Ms. Gumbatas are now held in such low regard by serious scholars throughout academia.

As a practicing Wiccan, I do have some regard for imagination (visualization). But foisting fantasy on the public to force political ideology under the guise of fact should be criminal. With regard to the subject matter, this book is an antidote for many of the historical lies perpetuated in "womens studies" classes, and will likely be welcome by any who hold even a marginal value for reality.

In my mind, this should be required reading across college campuses everywhere, even if only as a small counter to much of the pseudo-history we are forced to put up with.

This was a well-argued, evenhanded presentation of the complexities involved in formulating a new religion (sorry kids, thats what its about; we're not dealing with anything "Ancient" or "Prepatriarchy" here). The "selected" authors/thinkers/conspirators debunked are chosen not for being easy targets, but for being the most popular and relied-upon proponents of this "goddess" stuff. And the author does a good job. He doesn't read too well though, and isn't through enough with the more recent critiques of Gimbutas' work, and doesn't give credit where credits due at times. Gimbutas theories concerning Goddess-worship are virtually the only facet of her work that her "proponents" speak of, ignoring the vindication of her research into prehistoric migration, which the author scarely alludes to. A related book in the field of goddess-stuff is "In the Wake of the Goddesses" by Frymer-Kensky, concerning related issues of scholarship but in the Ancient Near East; a less-objective but thoroughly entertaining book is "Razor for a Goat" by Elliot Rose, centering on the construction of a "link" between ancient European religions and Gardiner/murray strain of "witchcraft"/old Religion.

A fascinating look at the origins of some portions of the early origins of neo-pagan belief. Personally,I enjoyed the sections on Romanticism and its connection with the movement. However, I am bewildered that the author and most of the reviewers posting here have made the absurd assumption that all Wiccans and Neo pagans are credulous enough to believe that they are directly practicing an ancient religion passed down directly from the Pre-Christian past, or some "goddess time" that never existed. I should hope that kind of thinking went out of the movement in the 1970s. It's a new religion that takes scraps of inspiration from a past that's murky at best in the scholarly sense, though beautiful in its fragmentary state, and is more concerned with being relevant to the present. As a Neo pagan with a shelf full of scholarly works on archaeology, contemporary sources and literature on the subjects covered in this book I am amused that someone took so much time and trouble to paint postmodern Pagans with such an old-fashioned brush.